A meeting of Sindh government secretaries to review the performance of various departments on January 1, but it was called off at the eleventh hour, as no department had prepared a progress report about the project to be discussed at the meeting, sources told Business Recorder on Friday.
They said that the provincial administration was dilly-dallying the implementation of the directives of President Asif Ali Zardari regarding uplift projects, started by the present PPP-led government. The authorities concerned do not even bother to apprise the provincial government about the performance of their respective departments, they said.
"The chief secretary became angry over the response of the bureaucracy and asked the general administration department to issue letters to all secretaries to submit their progress reports at the next meeting, which would be held on Saturday (January 3)", they added.
In his first meeting with the provincial government, they said President Asif Ali Zardari had called for quarterly progress reports regarding implementation of development projects. He had also instructed Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Chief Secretary Fazalur Rehman to review the progress twice a month in this regard, they said.
To a question about why the bureaucracy was showing reluctance, the sources said that majority of the secretaries were having support of their ministers. "No action would be taken against them because they are sincere to their ministers who have brought them to their respective departments".
A PPP minister, on condition of anonymity, told Business Recorder that the bureaucracy had remained active during the tenure of former President Pervez Musharraf, but now no one was taking the instructions seriously. The performance of the provincial administration regarding enforcement of cabinet decisions was very slack, he noted. "Majority of directives of the Chief Minister are also pending and the provincial ministers and secretaries were blaming each other for failure to implement them", the minister added.